Re: out-of hour shifts

THIS IS THE CONTEXT WHERE THE PHRASE APPEARS. NOW THAT I'VE GONE OVER THEM, IT SEEMS TO MEAN "EXTRA SHIFTS, EXTRA HOURS"WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Patients have died in Britain because British MPs failed to ensure foreigndoctors working out-of-hours shifts can speak English properly

The Commons Health select committee also poured scorn on the Government for agreeing to GPs’ demands for a lucrative contract which makes it too easy for them to opt out of responsibility for out-of-hours care.This has forced the NHS to bring in doctors from abroad.

An inquest in February criticised the current out-of-hours arrangementsfollowing the death of 70-year-old patient David Gray in Cambridgeshire in 2008

Steve Field said there should be a wider look at emergency care, including A&E services, out-of-hours medical provisionsand GP services. Patient safety must always take priority over the free movement of labour

Re: out-of hour shifts

Hola Diego:

I'm still not sure about this. Out of hours could mean "non-scheduled" hours. In the US we refer to regularly scheduled hours (or shifts). So an out of hours shift might mean working during hours other than a regular shift which, in effect could be "extra hours".

Re: out-of hour shifts

OK, I queried "out of hours" and it seems that it refers to doctors who perform services outside normal office hours such as evenings and weekends. So the phrase means "outside of normal hours" I think.

At first I was thinking about hospitals who have 24 hour or round the clock shifts but I now think this is referring to doctors offices and clinics who keep normal hours of operation, such as 8AM to 5PM and anything outside those hours is "out of hour"